


it'll be a different kind

by orphan_account



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-15
Updated: 2012-09-15
Packaged: 2017-11-14 06:35:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/512370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>zoro, perona, and mihawk. they're not nakama, but they're something, and it's good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it'll be a different kind

She watches him train, and every day she patches him up. It's with loud protests that he eventually learns to tune out expertly. Which, in turn, leads to her slapping his fresh cuts just enough to make them sting when she wants his attention. It settles into a routine. He trains, she patches him up, they yell at each other, he gets lost, they yell some more. Mihawk watches them with a glass of red wine in his hand and somehow manages to look exasperated and amused at the same time.

It's not friendly by any means, but it feels right. In some ways, it reminds Zoro of his nakama. Nami would never whine like she does, but yelling at an annoying woman he cares about (though he'd never admit he cares about Perona) is familiar. It's a comfort and an ache at the same time. He misses obnoxious songs, and snores, and yells so much he can feel it behind his rib cage. The pain is as sharp as any blade he's ever come across. But they dull it, just a little.

One night Perona gets the bright idea to raid Mihawk's wine cellar. Zoro goes along with it just because it's been a long while since he's had booze. Wine's not his drink of choice, but if there's enough for him to get tipsy, he'll be satisfied. As it turns out, drinking lots and lots of red wine gets both of them fairly drunk quicker than they thought it would. Perona leans on him heavily and sighs into his shirt.

"Six more months and then I'll be all alone again..." It's barely louder than a whisper and Zoro's certain she wouldn't have said it if she was sober. It makes him pause with the bottle of wine halfway to his lips.

"You'll have Hawkeyes," he says awkwardly. 

Perona makes a noise in the back of her throat and shoves her face into his sleeve. "Noooo. He leaves for weeks at a time while he's training you! What do you think he'll do when you're not around?"

Zoro has no answer, so he doesn't say anything. She's right. Mihawk has left, and it's no secret he values his solitude. Her fears aren't exactly unfounded, but there's nothing he can do about them. So he takes another drink and lets her situate herself under his arm. It's a small comfort she may not remember come morning, but it's all he's got.

He wakes to a boot nudging his ribs. With a small groan, he clutches his head and squints up at Mihawk. He's alone on the floor of the cellar, still tipsy if the fuzz in his brain is any indication. "Where's—?"

"I carried her to her room," Mihawk says. "I'm not doing the same for you." But he does offer a hand up and let's Zoro lean against him as they stumble towards his room. 

As he crashes into bed he thinks that he's going to catch hell in the morning for drinking all that wine. The next thought that comes is that it's odd he's being shown this much kindness. He voices the thought, and Mihawk just raises an eyebrow at him as he turns to go. 

"Oi... Wait," Zoro says. He turns so his face is out of the pillow and he can actually be understood. "You're not—you're gonna look out for her when I'm gone, right?"

Mihawk sighs and looks at him like he's an idiot. "You say that like I'm not doing so already." It's not a good enough answer. Hawkeyes knows it. "Yes, Roronoa. I will look out for her when you are gone."

Six months later, they're yelling at each other as they get the ship ready to go to Saobody. Mihawk's nowhere to be found and Zoro's surprised to find that he's a little angry about it. He's angry enough that he sets their rations down a little too harshly. "Oi! Watch it!" Perona yells, getting up in his face. "Don't break anything!" 

They yell at each other more and then they set sail. He finds a note in his pocket when they're a little ways from shore. 'The next time we meet, I expect you to best me.' It's not signed. It doesn't need to be. The rush of fondness and pride he feels when reading it is a little odd, but Zoro shoves it aside. When he parts with Perona at Saobody, venturing off by himself to try and find Sunny it's strange. He knows as he boards a ship that he's going to miss her. Him too. He lived with them for longer than he's been with Luffy. That's a weird thing to think about. Because they're not nakama, they never could be. But they're something, and it's good. He shoves that thought away too soon enough.

When he finally beats Mihawk, the two of them end up bleeding in the dirt, exhausted. Old Hawkeyes is beaten, but Zoro can't bring himself to kill him. They lie there, each of them trying to catch their breath, and there's a sense of friendly camaraderie that envelops Zoro. He can hear Luffy whoop in the distance, but it's quickly drowned out by Perona shoving her face in his and berating him yet again. 

He laughs.


End file.
